LA-based Stephen Jaymes is a punk poet; a wounded-romantic; a sonic noir auteur and a post-apocalyptic hippie. This month Stephen welcomes a new era of sharply-focused creativity with CHIEF INSPECTOR, the first in a series of four singles seeding a path to a debut full-length album next year. CHIEF INSPECTOR is a doppelgänger noir in which the detective becomes the hunted, the eventual victim of his earlier foolish desire to lock a part of himself up. “I didn’t know what I was writing at first, but it turned out to be a kind of warning and a piece of advice, and it turned out I was talking to myself. I think now I was hearing from the part of me that was unhappy that I hadn’t really been making music in awhile. So I rectified that, and now we’re closer than we’ve ever been.”

Chief Inspector

Prism in Jeans

Dog Dribble

Tinfoil Hat

Electronic strings (Master Blaster)

The title track from Stephen Jaymes's "I am Waking" EP finds Stephen having a pillow fight with desire and submitting in the end to the role of master. Recorded in Los Angeles in the spring of 2016 on an iPad Pro.

Written, produced, and performed by Stephen Jaymes. Copyright Stephen Jaymes, all rights reserved.

I Am Waking

I Am Waking (Album Version)

The first track from Stephen Jaymes's "I am Waking" EP follows Stephen through the troubadour's mythopsychic journey, from the mountain to the city and back again. Recorded in Los Angeles in the spring of 2016 on an iPad Pro.

Written, produced, and performed by Stephen Jaymes. Copyright Stephen Jaymes, all rights reserved.

To Live (Is To Start All Over Again)

To Live (Is To Start All Over Again) (Album Version)

The closing track from Stephen Jaymes's "I am Waking" EP features Stephen's powerful voice making some unusually forthright demands. Recorded in Los Angeles in the spring of 2016 on an iPad Pro.

Written, produced, and performed by Stephen Jaymes. Copyright Stephen Jaymes, all rights reserved.

Till You Weaken

Till You Weaken (Album Version)

The title track from Stephen Jaymes's "Sweet Violin" EP finds Stephen reflecting on the perfect instrument and making the quantum leap.

Written, produced, and performed by Stephen Jaymes. Copyright Stephen Jaymes, all rights reserved.

Sweet Violin EP

Sweet Violin

Sweet Violin (Album Version)

The second track from Stephen Jaymes's "Sweet Violin" EP follows Stephen and friends from the shelter of a bedroom in the storm to the clean lawn of a breaking dawn.

Written, produced, and performed by Stephen Jaymes. Copyright Stephen Jaymes, all rights reserved.

The Drumming

The Drumming (Album Version)

Floating through this hole of mine, drinking bottles of clementine
Take my hand and a hidden face, swim to the lion for a warm embrace
Walking through the Albert Hall, a day in life is miserable
Out of touch on my dying bed, thinking about what it is to be dead

Tears of love are beautiful, closer to an animal
Observation of the golden one, say your name just to pierce your tongue
Poke your nail in the gramophone, listen for your holy note

Velvet sea
Your love is clean
Velvet sea
Your love is clean
In a velvet sea

Speaking with the president, I'd love to stay here gentlemen
Always trapped in my lively head, I'd touch my knee but my eyes are red
Feeling up your velvet thigh, looking through the monkey eye
Will you be here when nothing dies? Or just a man living in the sky?

Tears of love are beautiful, closer to an animal
Observation of the golden one, say your name just to pierce your tongue
Poke your nail in the gramophone, listen for your holy note

Velvet sea
Your love is clean
Velvet sea
Your love is clean
In a velvet sea

velvet sea

“If folk-punk poetry had a name it would be Stephen Jaymes,” declared Kill the Music after he dropped three creatively explosive singles and music videos over the summer of 2023. It's now 2025 and SJ is about to drop his debut album, King Jaymes. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, and producer, Stephen is a self-contained artist. He might be described as Charles Bukowski ditching whiskey for psychedelic mushrooms while feverishly ingesting Rumi poetry and Phil Ochs records. He writes with a strutting, folk-punk sensibility, bringing to life dark realities in order to highlight, with literate and lacerating lyrics, the brightness underneath.

Stephen’s voice draws comparisons to Iggy Pop, Ian McCulloch, and Gordon Lightfoot. His musical style has been compared to Elvis Costello, Beck, and T Rex. His lyrical style is reminiscent of Nilsson, Phil Ochs, and Leonard Cohen.

Chief Inspector

Stephen Jaymes

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